Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions

May 18 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Thursday:

** Italy's biggest regional utility A2A is working with investment bank Rothschild to sell its stake in Montenegrin power monopoly EPCG by the year end, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

** Real estate group A. Silva & Silva has launched the sale of Spanish car parking company Empark, which could be valued at up to 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), people close to the matter said.

** Texas regulators said they remained opposed to NextEra Energy Inc's proposed $18 billion acquisition of Oncor, the largest network of power lines in Texas, a deal regulators have said was not in the public interest.

** Private equity fund PAI Partners has put its majority stake in Belgian specialist lighting company ADB Safegate up for sale and mandated Credit Suisse and Rothschild to find a buyer, sources close to the matter said.

** Japan's SoftBank Group has invested $1.4 billion in the parent of India's Paytm, giving the digital payments start-up a boost as it looks to expand its user base and maintain its market lead in Asia's third-largest economy.

** Australia's oldest newspaper publisher Fairfax Media Ltd on Thursday said it has received a takeover bid worth as much as A$2.87 billion ($2.13 billion) from a second U.S. private equity firm, sending its shares sharply higher.

** British laundry services group Berendsen rejected on Thursday a revised, 2 billion pound ($2.6 billion) offer by French peer Elis, saying it did not reflect value being added by the UK firm's expansion and modernisation plans.

** U.S. home improvement retailer Lowe's Cos Inc said it would buy Maintenance Supply Headquarters, a wholesale retailer of maintenance supplies, for $512 million, as it seeks to sell more to construction contractors.

** Six Akzo Nobel investors have filed to participate or speak in a case against the company's boards being heard next week at an Amsterdam court, a court statement showed.

** John Beckwith, whose Pacific Investments Group has launched a number of asset management firms since he co-founded it in 1994, has taken a stake in emerging markets focused hedge fund North of South Capital.

** UAE Exchange Group, owner of Travelex and other money transfer businesses, aims to spend between $250 million and $300 million on acquisitions to build its global market share, its chief executive said.

** Italian lender Intesa Sanpaolo took on a deal rival banks had turned down when it advised on the sale of a stake in sanctioned Russian oil major Rosneft last year, and by pulling off the sale it won favour from the Kremlin.

** Mining and commodities trading group Glencore is jumping into Mexico's recently opened energy sector, one of the hottest investment tickets in the industry, by setting up a retail station franchise and fuel supply deal with local group Corporacion G500 SAPI (G500), it said on Thursday.

** South Africa's Tsogo Sun Holdings has sold 29 hotels to Hospitality Property Fund for a 3.6 billion rand ($268 million) mix of cash and shares, the companies said on Thursday.

** Alitalia went on the auction block on Wednesday, as Italy kicked off the process of finding a buyer to save the money-losing flag carrier.

** Thai telecom company Intouch Holdings Pcl on Thursday said its venture capital arm plans to finalize two deals by mid-year.

** Japanese automotive chip maker Renesas Electronics Corp said on Thursday that stockholders including state-run fund Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ) planned to sell a combined 16.5 percent of its shares.

** Russia plans to sell part of state shipping firm Sovcomflot next month, hoping to draw in a wide range of small-stake investors rather than a strategic buyer who could threaten Moscow's control of the group, banking and industry sources say.

** OneWeb, the U.S. satellite startup backed by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, has increased its merger proposal for Intelsat SA by offering Intelsat's creditors a smaller discount for their bonds than it had before. (Compiled by Sruthi Shankar and Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru)